Please check the awesome Kerkythea images sub-section at the bottom of this gallery
for realistic rendering using physically accurate materials and lighting. Bloody amazing.

Like the last time, I'd like to begin by showing you what the model looks like when
GIMP-ed against some real background. Just a single image for now. Later, we'll have a full gallery of images and
fancy effects. Here you, my flying aircraft carrier in low, slow flight above a harbor in a Vietnam-like setting,
firing its twin belly cannon in support of ground forces. Air cavalry futuristic style.

Speaking of creating realistic imagery, I'm exploring Kerkythea
rendering software, so we'll see what gives. I am also considering making a few slideshows in Google SketchUp,
which might make the existing and future repertoire even more exciting. But that's a different story. Let's focus
on my flying aircraft carrier here.

Flying aircraft carrier - The idea is born ...

I got hit by a wave of inspiration while reading an excellent book on Soviet-era ekranoplans. One of the concepts
mentioned in the book was a lunatic proposal of creating a flying aircraft carrier, a 10,000-ton platform that
would skim low above the Caspian Sea or the Black Sea, carrying weapons and aircraft. While it was never
realized, Russians did go ahead with Beriev Be-2500, which is no less impressive when it comes to pushing the
limits of aerodynamics to new, insane levels.

What I decided to do was take the classic carrier concept and turn it into a flying fortress. Instead of creating
a lighter-than-air machine with huge wings, I went for a combination of classic aircraft design and VTOL
capabilities on gigantic scale, spawning what is essentially a Harrier-like aircraft carrier. OK, now that you
know what lurks in the dark corners of my mind, how about some pictures?

Gallery

Let's begin with a few isometric screenshots. The flying aircraft carrier looks pretty much like a typical,
conventional naval carrier, except its hull is designed for air flight rather than sea faring. There's also a
pair of massive wings housing four huge vertical jets and a pair of smaller, canard-like wings in the front,
housing two more engines. The six engines provided vertical lift. Seen just below the right wing root is the
nacelle of one of the four ventral jets, which give aircraft forward speed.

Other than the fact it is supposed to fly, the carrier has a fairly standard configuration: the command island is
located on the right side of the deck 2/3rds toward the stern; the landing strip is angled to allow aircraft to
overshoot if they approach at a too steep angle or too fast; the takeoff deck takes the front half.

In the rear, you get a large elevator, which is used to lug aircraft up and down from and into the underdeck
hangar.

The carrier is fairly large, approx. 300 meters, with wings spanning some 230 meters. The angled deck is about
200 meters long, while the unassisted takeoff deck is about 150 meters long. The reason there are no catapults is
fairly simple; they are unnecessary. When you launch aircraft at 5,000 meters above ground, they are bound to
gain speed eventually.

The front canards and the twin tails play a crucial role of reducing buffeting and air vortices, which might
impede the air operations on the deck at high speed and altitude. Furthermore, the fore pair of engine nacelles
is a little higher than the main quartet, again to prevent buildup of air pressure at the deck.

You must admit the carrier looks quite nice. It looks sleek and robust and might actually work as a real-life
design, if anyone were mental enough to place some 50,000 tons of weapons into the air and let it soar. Notice
the weapon turrets, we'll talk about those soon.

Well, that's imposing. You can appreciate the heavy built, designed to withstand the enormous forces. Notice the
bulky hull and the thick wing cross-section, part in order to support the massive engines, part to carry enough
fuel for said engines.

Engines

Getting the carrier into the air is not a simple thing; which is why it has a total of ten mammoth jets creating
tremendous lift. I'm not sure how much thrust is required to lift a 50,000-ton machine into the air, but it's
definitely a lot.

Most of the hull volume is taken by jet fuel, required to power the engines. Fully loaded, the carrier can remain
airborne for 48 hours before it has to land and refuel. Totally made up, but who cares?

However, like any huge vessel, the flying aircraft carrier is also equipped with small maneuvering engines, akin
to water jets used on big ships for mooring and harbor navigation. These include jets units fore and aft,
allowing a hovering carrier to pivot, much like a helicopter.

Weapons

Since my carrier is supposed to provide air cover and mobility, the offensive weapons systems are mostly
positioned on the bottom side of the hull. That does not mean you find an odd gun on the top deck, though.
Furthermore, the defensive weapons are positioned all around, in the form of R2D2 Phalanx-like CIWS anti-missile
mounts. Compared to a conventional carrier, my vessel faces an additional challenge of fending against
surface-to-air missiles. Being large and rather slow and non-maneuverable compared to classic aircraft, even
bombers, the flying aircraft carrier is an easy prey for ground defense forces. However, unlike most aircraft, it
can afford tons of armor and ECM equipment and self-defense weapons.

The most important and notable weapon is the powerful twin 203mm long-range gun, paired with a smaller,
dual-purpose 127mm automatic gun. Both weapons traverse full 360 degrees, so they can engage any which target
regardless of the flight direction.

An additional twin gun is mounted in the prow. The carrier also loads sixteen cruise missiles in forward
launchers. Again, the added benefit of high-speed, high-altitude capability allows the carrier to fire missiles
much further than ground or marine systems can do, as the launched payload does not have to waste much energy in
gaining the trajectory.

More weapons are mounted on the rear deck and the island, including additional twin 76mm automatic guns and
Harpoon anti-shipping missiles.

Some long zoom shots

With details slightly obscured, realism takes over.

With shadows

Some shadows to make things even more realistic. Looks dandy, ain't it?

With aircraft

To spice things up, I added several instances of my brown-and-yellow Su-35-like model,
creating a lively scene, with a plane taking off and banking away, another landing, and some half a dozen units
parked on the deck. First, here's the landing approach:

Some intense Top Gun screenshots:

With aircraft & ground

I thought the most appropriate color for the background is blue, since you would expect a flying aircraft carrier
to spend most of its time over the sea. For some reason, you can't really see it chugging above populated areas,
at least not in the friendly territory, that is.

With aircraft & ground & shadows

A couple of lovely CGI-like shots, showing the vivid air operations action on the deck, with the carrier skimming
low above ground.

Super-realistic GIMP-ing

Now, the best part. Several images of my carrier, carefully integrated into realistic settings. Not an easy task
without proper rendering, but with some small sacrifice of color and details, I was able to make pretty decent
images. Furthermore, I even managed a few pictures of the carrier blasting the main gun. Let's begin with the
simple stuff: flying carrier, shrouded in clouds, above the sea. In color and BW.

And here's a cinematographic moment:

And finally, the carrier in shooting action! Much like the opening teaser, with a few extras. Creating the gun
blast effect was not easy, but I managed. One picture showing dusk overhead artillery action in sick
green-saturated Vietnam-era, faded, low-quality style, slightly ruined by oil stains from too much handling by
aircraft mechanics around the hangar, and one in black & white.

Like the tank model, I tremendously enjoyed creating this one. The biggest pleasure was conceiving the idea. Of
all models I've shown you so far, I believe this one is possibly the most unique and original. It's also
saturated with a handful of small details that make a big difference. If I may be allowed to grade myself, a
round ten would be in order.

Now, I will soon be exploring new facets of 3D art. You can expect some tutorials on how to work with Google
SketchUp, including photo matching and slideshows. Then, we might also try to get this software to run on Linux.
Let's not forget Kerkythea. And even more fine models. It shall be interesting. That would be all, fellas. Or
rather, onwards into the realm of real rendering. Holy banana.

Kerkythea images

Time for proper fun ... This is madness, Sparta, uh ... realistic rendering.

Here's the same model, only re-created using Kerkythea, after exporting
the model using SketchUp Importer for Google SketchUp and
rendered with photons and ray tracing and magic and whatnot. You will like this. My dream of making
near-realistic models is coming true, finally. Nirvana. Spledidski.

You probably liked my GIMP-ing above. Now, let's see some really realistic work. Let's begin with a simple side
shot against an early morning sky. Not bad. The entire ship was redone with brushed metal materials, with
low-contrast grays and with engine nacelles sparkling a shiny gleam.

With some GIMP help, you can have the ship blasting its cannon at dusk, in color or black and white. Similar to
what I've done before, only it looks even more impressive now.

And here's the same one oil-painting style:

It gets better. Here's a smart low-angle bottom shot. Not bad, you have to admit. The engine nacelles really add
to the overall feel. The model feels busy, but it's not chaotic.

A long-distance shot; now you can begin to appreciate the massive, robust shape of the flying carrier, with all
the fancy details, like vertical lift engines, the belly array of weapons and radomes, the overhanging slab of
the landing deck, thin and fragile yet heavy and durable.

This looks even more impressive:

Finally, here's a top shot at high altitude. Ground is a hazy blur several kilometers below the carrier, obscured
by a cloud bank. You can almost guess what's happening in the background, but not quite. I really liked this. Of
course, there's always room for improvement, but that's what sequels are for, right.